ApplicationInterface
An application interface represents a point of access where application services are made available to a user, another application component, or a node.

An application interface specifies how the functionality of a component can be accessed by other elements (provided interface), or which functionality the component requires from its environment (required interface). An application interface exposes application services to the environment. The same application service may be exposed through different interfaces, and the same interface may expose multiple services.

In a sense, an application interface specifies a kind of contract that a component realizing this interface must fulfill. This may include parameters, protocols used, pre- and post-conditions, and data formats.

An application interface may be part of an application component through composition (not shown in the standard notation), which means that these interfaces are provided by that component, and can serve other application components. An application interface can be assigned to application services or business services, which means that the interface exposes these services to the environment. The name of an application interface should preferably be a noun.

: ApplicationInterface (architecture_autodiagram)
Figure 49 : ApplicationInterface (architecture_autodiagram)
ApplicationInterfaceExternalActiveStructureElement